Demand for all things Issa has exploded in the U.K. and the U.S. since Kate Middleton wore the labels' sapphire blue wrap dress to announce her engagement to Prince William on Nov. 17. In Canada? No change.

Prior to the announcement of Prince William’s engagement to Kate Middleton on Nov. 17, Issa, if you’d heard of it at all, was merely one of the perfectly lovely and utterly non-threatening labels the perfectly lovely and utterly non-threatening Middleton tended to glom on to for event wear.

As of that day, when Waity Kate appeared before the world, finally, as the royal bride-to-be wearing a sapphire-blue Issa dress to match her hand-me-down engagement ring, Issa has become a household name to bookmakers, fashion addicts, royal watchers and the regular folk suddenly inundated with all things nuptial.

International media has reported that the blue dress with long sleeves and a wrapped waist, which retails for $535 on net-a-porter.com, sold out pronto at U.K. retailers Harvey Nichols and Matches, and wait lists grow by the day for all things Issa at retailers in the United States.

“People are going crazy for this dress,” Monique Erickson, the buyer for Beyond 7, which carries Issa in New York, told the New York Times. Tesco, the U.K. grocery chain, threw a blue dress with a waistband on its website, called it a Kate engagement dress, and sold out within an hour — though careful inspection shows their “knock off” version resembles the one Middleton wore only in approximate colour and the fact both are dresses.

Whatever, the world is mad about the girl and her clothes.

Except, perhaps, on these shores.

TNT, the fashion retailer with shops in Toronto and Montreal, carries Issa but reports no uptick in traffic, requests or sales of the line. Upscale fashion retailer Holt Renfrew doesn’t carry Issa, and despite a recent “British Invasion” designer promotion to knock the dust off the Room, beither does the Bay. A cursory look at Mendocino, Club Monaco, the Gap (once well known for a blue dress of its own) Zara or H&M indicates there is no hasty grab for all things blue to capture romantic imagination, there is nary a sapphire dress in sight.

While bookies tend not to concern themselves with the fashion world, bets are on for whom Middleton will choose to design her wedding dress.

According to Cathy Horyn of the New York Times, bookmakers Paddy Power and William Hill favor Phillipa Lepley, a Chelsea designer, to create The Dress, followed by Issa designer Daniella Issa Helayel. “Never heard of Ms. Lepley?” wrote Horyn. “Nor had I.”

There’s money riding on the choice.

When Williams’ Princess Diana chose David and Elizabeth Emanuel to design her poufy meringue wedding dress, their profile soared, licensing agreements for perfume, linens and sunglasses followed and a copy of the Diana dress given to Madame Tussauds was auctioned at £100,000, twice the estimate.

David Emanuel, born in Wales and thus a perfect fit for the Princess of, went on to a career in reality television, offering wardrobe advice and make-overs.

Whether negotiations have begun with any designer is a closely held secret and Daniella Issa Helayel, the Brazilian-born Londoner isn’t talking.

The completely circumspect Middleton hasn’t said a word about her wedding dress either, so it is a bookmaker’s guess. Middleton is very committed and loyal — she waited eight years to become engaged to her man — which points in the direction of Issa. But, Middleton is likely as well to spread the wealth as befitting a future queen in these times, which points instead to another choice.

One thing is for sure, whoever the designer and whatever the design, it will be tasteful and unimpeachable, if not exactly the sort of thing to set the world on fire. Don’t expect a Carolyn Bessette moment, where the simple slip of a dress she wore to wed John Kennedy Jr. set off a trend and a movement toward minimalism, and kicked the career of designer Narcisco Rodriguez into high gear.

There is a tiny bit of intel within Middleton’s interest in Issa however. While the decade-old label is meant to be easy-breezy and reminiscent of St. Tropez louche glamour, designer Helayel has said: “I design clothes for people like me who think they’re fat,” adding that her clothes are meant to “hide people’s defects and accentuate the good points.”

Aha! Does Middleton think she’s fat? She is the first “commoner” to marry a future king. An eight-year wait to land an engagement certainly offers no risk of “fairytale romance” illusions,which plagued William’s parents, Diana and Charles. Her own parents are self-made and middle class. She maybe thinks she’s fat. Perhaps Kate Middleton, future Queen, really is one of us.

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